Age of Empires 3 - Act 1 "Blood" Campaign Walkthrough Guide

This walkthrough and strategy guide will cover Act I, Blood, of the campaign in the PC game Age of Empires 3. There are eight total missions in each of the three acts that the campaign of AoE 3 is split into. Within you will find videos walkthroughs along with additional pictures and tips for how to win every mission on the Hard difficulty.

Throughout Act I of the campaign of this game you will command the forces of the Knights of St. John, under the command of Morgan Black as he is tasked with travelling to the new world in search of a powerful artifact under command of Alain.

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How to Follow this Guide

In each text section you will find hints and tips governing the general flow of the mission, which tasks you need to perform and the order which is best to do so in. You can find some additional info here that can help when combined with the additional resources presented. Objectives are listed in the order to perform them rather than the order they are presented to you in-game.

To the right of each section you can find pictures detailing the topics covered in the text portion, which can help point out important items or events.

Below each section you will find a video walkthrough of that mission with audio commentary, providing the most detailed step-by-step guide.

This guide and its videos were written as though played on the Hard difficulty which is the highest setting in the game. This is done so that these same strategies presented here will work on the easier settings if they are more your style.

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Collecting the treasures in the level Breakout in Age of Empires 3.

Defending the fortress walls with Crossbowmen.

Rushing the first Great Bombard.

Moving settlers to light the signal fire.

Alain's reinforcements arrive to help cleanup the mess.

Breakout - Mission 1

In the first level of the campaign "Blood" you command Morgan Black's forces of the Knights of St. John, fending off an Ottoman attack on their home of Malta. This level starts off with a significant challenge as opposed to most opening levels of a game that are designed to by easy on purpose, this is somewhat the opposite.

Primary Objective: Defend the Fort Command Post

You will start off with a significant colony already built and a fortress with several barracks within currently under attack. This point is the only one that needs to be defended for now as the sprawl of gatherers and other buildings to the north are safe as long as the fortress holds.

Select all the barracks by double clicking them to spread your production ques among all the buildings equally, upgrading the Crossbowmen immediately then queuing as many as your resources can afford to fund. You will want to mass produce these Crossbowmen to defend the walls from within your fort.

Save the Pikemen you start with for now by sending them to the rear of the base while using Morgan as a sacrifical target/tank by sending him out of the base to fight the enemy in close combat, triggering his special attack to do significant damage. Remember he is indestructible, simply passing out upon losing all health, coming back to consciousness when friendly units come nearby or some time has passed.

Secondary Objective: Collect all Treasures on the Map (300 XP)

While you are fighting off the initial waves, take one settler, hold the shift key and queue commands to collect all the visible treasures on your mini-map, marked with white Xs.This will net you some bonus experience plus much needed extra resources.

Defend the Fort (cont.) and the first Great Bombard

Eventually Ottoman cavalry will join the fight and the game will tell you to send out your Pikemen. Do not do this! Instead just build some Pikemen and Rodelero to save up for later. Concentrated arrow fire is still pretty good at dropping the horses.

Eventually a Great Bombard will join the attacking forces. Now will be the time to rush out with your close combat units and Crossbowmen to quickly engage the cannon before it can set up and fire or other additional enemies arrive to defend it, which do quickly follow.

Primary Objective: Light the Signal Fire

Take a group of Settlers and a handful of your ranged units after stopping the first Bombard and move them to the new location pointed out on your map. Here you will find four woodpiles that must be gathered to trigger lighting the fire and calling of additional reinforcements. You will want to bring some of your Crossbowmen and if you still have them, some close combat soldiers, to this hill as well since the Ottomans will send a small group of attackers to stop your Settlers from gathering the wood and lighting the fire. You can move your combat forces back once this group is fought off.

Primary Objective: Destroy all the Great Bombards.

Once Alain and his cavalry arrive you will have enough forces to overwhelm your attackers ad the three additional Bombards they brought with them with their final wave. Once all three cannons have been destroyed, which can be rushed with the cavalry, the mission is completed.

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Defending the starting base.

Finding the second treasure item in the Into the Caves level of Age of Empires 3.

Finding the shipwreck and its resources.

Rescuing trapped soldiers while attacking the Ottoman base.

Taking out the first cache outside of the caves while rescuing more soldiers in the Into the Caves level of Age of Empires 3.

Taking out the final weapons caches and Ottoman Town Center inside the cave network.

Ottoman Mosque and additional resources past the final weapons cache.

Into the Caves - Mission 2

In mission two of Act One in Age of Empires 3, Into the Caves, Morgan and his men move on the offensive, pushing the Ottomans out of Malta. In this level you will be primarily tasked with the destruction of a series of weapons caches.

Primary Objective: Defend the base from the Ottoman attack.

As you start this level, your starting base will be under attack by a small group of Ottoman forces. Quickly move all your units into range to combat the attackers and assist in the defense. You are given a single Great Bombard to use in this mission and you should do your best to keep it alive and protected throughout the mission.

Secondary Objective: Claim the nearby Treasure (300 XP)

Although presented with other objectives after your successful defense, you will first want to acquire the two nearby treasure items. One is visible from the start of the game, just northwest of your base while the second is north some ways near a gold mine. Pick these up to give you some bonus experience towards growing your home city while giving you additional starting resources.

Next up it is time to complete this objective, as you will need the Hoop Throwers to fight off the Janissary and can make use of some Mortar teams for the destruction of buildings in the remainder of this mission. Train the 10 Hoop Throwers you need and queue up one or two Mortars afterwards once you have the resources.

To the east of your base, just across the water some there is the shipwreck along with several crates worth of resources and some treasure along with treasure guardians. Send Morgan with some units and Settlers to capture the treasure and claim these resources to give yourself a substantial boost. The earlier and quicker you can get this done, the better.

Destroy the Ottoman Base

Travel directly Northeast from your base along with your artillery and your massed army to gut the Ottoman base and rescue some additional soldiers at the same time before approaching the Weapon Caches. Take out everything you find there, including the Town Center and most importantly the Barracks to stem the Ottomans offensive capabilities and allowing you to steamroll your way across the rest of the map.

Work your way around towards the entrance of the tunnel further north and make sure you've cleared out any remaining buildings. The experience from destroying these structures alone is worth the effort.

Primary Objective: Destroy all 8 Weapons Caches

Start working on the target buildings now, starting with the Weapon Cache pointed out on your map from the beginning, outside of the tunnel network. You will also find more soldiers to rescue near this first cache.

Expansion packs for Age of Empires 3

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Building the tower defense network.

Attacking the Settler island in the level Pirates! of Age of Empires 3.

Taking over Piggy Island.

Building the attack forces on J Island.

Drawing out the Pirate army while bombarding it with the boats.

Overwhelming the Pirate base.

Pirates! - Mission 3

On the way to the New World, Morgan and the Knights of St. John are attacked by a group of pirates under the command of one Elizabeth Ramsey. In the level Pirates! of Age of Empires 3, you will have to establish a base in the are with which to locate a set of 3 navigation charts to continue on your journey.

Primary Objectives: Build a Town Center & Build a Barracks and Dock

You will start the mission off on the north island of five, with a small army and a Covered Wagon with which to build your Town Center. Quickly get its construction started while taking your troops and clearing out some of the enemy on the island. There are some supplies and treasure that you can capture on this island, one of which grants you a special jaguar unit.

This level is best done by taking your time to build up a substantial base and income while slowly conquering the three smaller outlying islands before attacking Lizzie and her pirate base which is situated on the largest island. Card shipments from Malta are not yet an option in this level, but you will get reinforcements every so many minutes of ships and some ground units. These ship reinforcements forgo the need of building up a navy since you will get more than enough for this level for free.

You will want to get some soldiers trained relatively quickly to combat some of the land based threats like enemies dropped onto your shores by their ships. In addition to this, once you have the resources you will want to build a dock to repair St. Elmo (your beginning hero ship, which is NOT invincible unlike hero land units) and set up a defense network of Outposts along the edge of your island as their cannons are excellent against hostile ships.

Taking the Outlying Islands

Once you have progressed to the point you have a large base operating with enough income to support the growth of a significant army while still having enough defenders to withstand the perpetual attacks, it is time to start conquering the three smaller islands not occupied by the pirate base itself.

Settler Island

This is the tiniest of all the islands in this level, just west of yours. Send a handful of soldiers along with Morgan to fight the treasure guardians and the enemy Outpost that exist here. Once you kill these, you can claim the treasure which grants you two Settlers. If you destroy the enemy house here, it will drop several stacks of resources for those Settlers to collect and can be left here even after to mine the nearby gold.

Piggy Island & Primary Objective: Navigation Chart #1

The Piggy Island is the one directly southeast of yours, named by myself as such due to the astonishing amount of boars that populate it (yes i know they're not piggies, but Boar island sounds less entertaining). Here you will find some scattered enemies and treasure guardians protecting several pieces of treasure, one of which is the Navigation Chart. You will also find a second covered wagon in another treasure here. It is worth bringing a group of settlers to harvest Piggy Island for the abundance of food here compared the probable lack of food at your current Island about now.

Secondary Objective: Build a second Town Center. (200 XP)

With that new Covered Wagon, take your force to the final outlying island directly south of Piggy Island which we will call the J island due to its similarity to the letter. Have your forces clear out the enemy here and bring Morgan to claim the treasure before dropping your Covered Wagon to build a Town Center wherever there is some room. You can build some Settlers here to construct an Artillery Foundry to build Mortar and Hoop Throwers for the final assault which we will launch from this J island.

Don't bother building Barracks here, as you can use your ships as mobile Barracks and Stables in one. Since you cant upgrade said units from the ship however, you should still have one of each at your original base if you plan on purchasing these upgrades. From here, start massing up your forces until you are near max population and get ready for a heavy fight.

Primary Objective: Collect the Navigation Charts #2 and #3

Once you have a good sized force, its time to move them from J island right across the water to the pirate's home island, the largest of all and shaped like an M. Before moving against the actual base, attack the buildings near the beach to get the attention of the pirate army who will soon come out to meet yours.

Draw their forces tot he beach where your ships who dropped off your army can support their battle with cannon fire. If you lose the fight retreat to island J to rebuild a second attack force with which to do the same again with until you have overcome the defenders. Once you've defeated the pirate army that comes to meet yours, replenish your forces by building directly from your ships onto your established beachhead and start moving against the base itself and claim the second Navigation Chart here.

One of the nearby treasure items on this island is a third Covered Wagon, but I personally found little significant use for it at this point in the game. It can be used for a new forward base nonetheless.

Mortars will be an excellent assistance in assaulting the final base, given their potential for building damage while your ships can circle the island to bombard the outskirts of the base as your forces break in through the walls and cause havoc on the inside. Once you've cleared enough of the enemy out around the Town Center to reach the final objective, you are free to claim the third Navigation Chart.

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Allying the northern native settlement.

Building up an army of natives in The Ottoman Fort.

Taking over the Aztec settlement and destroying the Ottoman defenders.

Beginning the assault on the gates of the Ottoman base.

Clearing up the remaining enemies.

The Ottoman Fort - Mission 4

With the Knights of St. John back on track, they have managed to catch up with the Ottomans in the new world, tracked to the jungles of Central America. In the Ottoman Fort, Morgan and his mean will have to establish a base and build up enough forces with the help of allied natives to overcome the Ottoman threat.

Primary Objective: Build a Town Center, Ally with 2 Natives and Send a Shipment

Quickly establish your Town Center near the path of gold and native american trading post location which Morgan should be already building. As soon as your base is established, get your Settlers to work while sending some additional Settlers from Malta, which can now send shipments to your base in this level.

Although there is little water in this level, it is worth building a Dock in order to construct fishing ships to collect resources from the fishing pools and the Whales. Whales, most importantly, are an endless supply of gold and should have their max of 4 simultaneous harvesters filled as soon as possible. In the mean time you should be trying to rush your way to the next age so you can start building an army.

Primary Objective: Destroy the Ottoman Fishing Dock

There are two enemy warships, one of which usually attacks your vessel near the beginning of the mission. Take the ship you arrived on and cautiously approach the south, engaging the second hostile ship that defends the dock with your special broadside attack to quickly diminish it's health. Follow up by destroying the fishing boat and then the Docks to quickly impact the Ottomans resourcing right off the bat inn this level.

Ally with 2 Natives (cont)

By now you should be approaching your second age and expanding upon your base, increasing your resourcing ability. Move to the northern native location to build a Trading Post and complete the objective while beginning to build up an army of natives and your own soldiers.

Take some time to mass your forces upon hitting the second age and work towards an Artillery Foundry to build Mortars for later and if you need additional resources you can expand northwest much safer than going south. You will need to defend from infrequent raids of enemy units from the south that are mainly only difficult to manage with your forces still in small numbers early on.

Send the Native American Lore upgrade from Malta before purchasing any of the native upgrades to save yourself some resources.

Ally with the Aztecs

Once you've got a decent force amassed you can move them south to encounter the third and final native post which is currently held by the Ottomans. The Aztec post should be destroyed along with its heavy defenders before building your own in its place. The Aztec Chocolates Recipe upgrade is a major boost to your resources, giving you gold at your Town Center every so often. Research this as soon as possible.

Destroy the Ottoman Command Post and Town Center

Spend some more resources on really filling out your army while taking that Artillery Foundry you should now have and building some Mortar for the final assault. Make sure all the Native American warriors you can purchase are maxed out and upgraded as they are pretty powerful warriors. The Ottoman base sits in an alcove on the west of the map, northwest of the Aztec Trading Post. When you feel ready to attack with a large force, move your units against the gates with your Mortar focusing on the large towers that defend the entrance. As long as you can drop these quickly you will have little issue with steamrolling the rest of the base.

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Fighting at the river crossing in Temple of the Aztecs, rescuing the first group of prisoners here.

Rescuing the second group of prisoners north of the crossing.

Rescuing prisoners by the Spanish Barracks in the west.

Rescuing the final group of Prisoners with the Incan prisoner treasure being at the top left of the screen.

Establishing the Town Center at the river crossing.

The Spanish start building their Fort in the Aztec town.

Defending against the Spanish

The Aztec reinforcements arrive.

Plowing the Spanish base.

Temples of the Aztec - Mission 5

Definitely one of the toughest missions so far, Temples of the Aztec in AoE 3 has you allying with the Aztec and defending their city while you await reinforcements to take on the Spanish Conquistadors who are the new threat in South America. The Ottomans on the other hand have been vanquished and scattered to the wind.

Primary Objective: Build a Trading Post at the Aztec village

You begin this mission without a town or Covered Wagon, with just a small army at your disposal. Start by moving southeast to find some Aztec prisoners captured by the Spanish that you can rescue. Saving them will grant you additional soldiers and give you the location of the nearby native settlement. Command Morgan to build the Trading Post while you send your forces further southeast to encounter more prisoners and an outpost.

Secondary Objective: Rescue more Aztec prisoners

At the next group of prisoners and the tower, focus on the Rodeleros first to free the Aztecs who can then help you finish off the Outpost. By now Morgan should have finished building the Trading Post which will bring you a single ship which drops off a Covered Wagon and some Settlers. Hold off on building the Town Center for now as it will trigger Spanish attacks while sending your Settlers about to start building structures like Barracks and a Market to be ready to mass produce units later and resourcing wood mostly for this purpose. Building a church and training a Priest is an excellent help in this mission considering your limited forces early on.

Move further along the east with your forces to find some treasure and continue until you reach a river crossing that allows you to travel north. Cross the river to find another group of Aztecs held by some Spanish cavalry, some nearby treasure and just a bit further north of that, Spanish Rodeleros guarding a second group of prisoners. After you rescued the group guarded by Rodeleros, head west without going any further north, as approaching the Spanish base to closely will trigger an overwhelming attack.

Traveling to the west and trough the path to the west side of the map that exists just to the south of the left Aztec Temple you will find more prisoners and treasure along with a Spanish Barracks you should destroy to prevent from giving you grief later on. Heading north you can find one last treasure of a pair of Incan soldiers then to the right of that the final group of Aztec prisoners. After rescuing these troops, head back to the centro of the Aztec town. Again, avoid getting too close to the Spanish, (think of the minimap as a clock, the Spanish base is at 1:30) even though there is a treasure nearby it of some gold, it is a trap as you cannot get close to it without triggering a massive attack.

Primary Objective: Build a Town Center and Protect the Temples

Build your Town Center near the river crossing to the southeast of the temples on the north side to keep it relatively out of the way and prevent the need to defend it too often and if so, close enough to the temples to quickly get troops there. Once your Town Center is built, the Aztecs send for reinforcements and you must hold out against Spanish waves for 15 minutes to await additional forces. You will need to save at least one Temple to satisfy the primary objective and two to satisfy the secondary objective. The series of shipments you should have saved up by now are probably best spent on all Settlers off the bat to boost your economy quickly.

The first wave will be massive, so prepare yourself and make as much use of Morgan's special attack as possible. If you managed to train a Priest he will really come in handy here, healing your army as they fight. The Spanish will usually bring a packaged Fort which they will try to build in the middle of the Aztec town. Rush this as quickly as you can if you see it and if it starts to build, fight any nearby enemies real quick and get some units throwing torches at it pronto. If the Fort gets built its pretty much game over as it will decimate your forces.

The waves after this initial decimation of your defenders will be substantially lighter, but you will still need to build up additional units quickly. Remember you can repair the Aztec Temples whenever they are not currently being fired at but you will need the saved up wood to do so. Falconets will be more present in the later waves than the initial and should be the focus of your efforts whenever present since they pose the biggest threat to the Temples.

Primary Objective: Find and destroy the Spanish Town Center

Once the timer runs out, the Spanish waves thin out and die off with the arrival of a massive force of native warriors that are quickly transferred under your control. Take these units and wipe the remaining Spanish from the city, take some time to build a couple Mortar while reinforcing your army before moving against the Spanish base.

There will be a few handfuls of defenders left but considering how much they expended their forces to effeminate the Aztec temples you should have little sustained resistance to your demolition of their settlement. The Mortar come in handy by taking out the gates or walls before your forces move in to prevent losses to enemy units firing at them from within the walls. Upon bringing their Town Center to the ground, this mission is complete.

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Fighting off the first wave of attackers after gaining control of Havana.

Capturing some nearby treasure while building up the economy.

Just some of the forces defending the Trading Post area.

The rest of the forces defending the Trading Post. Told you so.

The lost herd of cattle.

The native boy's canoe.

Returning Lizzie's Native American friend to his family.

A Pirate's Help - Mission 6

After setting course for Florida to find the Fountain of Youth, the Knights of St. John are confronted by another setback, this time in the form of a Hurricane that has severely damaged their fleet. In order to get back on track Morgan will have to impress Elizabeth Ramsey to hitch a ride on her pirate ship to make it to Florida in time.

The main goal of this mission will be to gather experience through combat and completing the various secondary objectives you will be presented with right at the start of this mission within a 20 minute time limit. Considering the amount of combat on hard, the experience you gain through methods outside of these secondary objectives may change slightly on easier difficulties.

This first task to accomplish starts right away with some hostiles to the west attacking settlers. Stop these enemies quickly as defeating them transfers control of the majority of structures and units in Havana to your command, thus making it in your best interests to save as many settlers as possible. Once the town is yours, get to the usually economy and base building while working on building up your forces to a large size, as there will be some heavy fighting ahead.

Give yourself about 8 good minutes of base and force building so your making real headway around 11 minutes left. In the mean time, defend Havana from the infrequent native attacks, one of which comes soon after you gain control of it. During this downtime you can explore the west for some treasure but do not approach the Trading Post until you have this substantial army.

Secondary Objective: Build the first Stable in Havana (500 XP)

This is a good objective you can complete during the base building process since a stable and some trained cavalry will be excellent against the majority of ranged units you face in A Pirate's Help.

Secondary Objective: Reopen trade with Cuba by building a second Trading Post (800 XP)

This objective will be given early on, but as mentioned above you will need a large force to accomplish this with (see pictures to the right for a view of the forces defending here) as there is some 30-40 ranged natives in the area. Move to wipe out the enemies within the vicinity of the Trading Post location before building one of yours on it. Accomplishing this not only grants the 800 experience for the objective but additional batches of experience as trade carts come through.

to the southeast corner of the mainland you will find a herd of cattle that you can capture by walking your units up to them. Since you should have the majority of the mainland cleared of the enemy by now, their trip back to the Livestock Pen should be easily taken unaccompanied as long as you're not sending them into uncovered areas.

Once you've accomplished the majority of objectives on the mainland or after a certain time, Lizzie will ask you to escort her Native American friend back to his family on the nearby island. First you will need to capture his canoe which is sitting defended by some hostiles at the beach just north of the lost herd.

Kill the enemy units and approach the canoe to capture it, then bring Lizzie's friend who has been transferred to your control along with a group of combat units and Morgan to the location pointed out on your map on the island. There will be some more natives to fight here but less than the defenders at the canoe, which are easily vanquished. Once these are done with you can move the native boy near the neutral native units to complete this objective.

These secondary objectives will get offered to you around the time you drop off the native boy but should be completely necessary to accomplish. The artifact is probably better worth your time, being on the same island you dropped the native off at, just having to head south and face another small group of enemies. The Gold is also guarded by some enemies, west of the Trading Post and will require Settlers to gather and complete. These may be worth completing to level up your city if you have the free time.

Return to Lizzie

You should most assuredly have over 8,000 experience by now, allowing you to take Morgan back to the main town of Havana and walk up to Lizzie which will satisfy the final objective of the mission and resulting in victory. Be careful with screwing around at the end as the timer runs until completion, so don't get distracted on your way back or you can still fail.

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Freeing the group of prisoners next to the First Treasure ship.

Rescuing the Native American scout in the Spanish Treasure Fleet level of Age of Empires 3.

Rescuing the prisoners that provide the Treasure Ship locations.

Destroying the first Fort from long range and capturing ship #3

Capturing ship #4

Capturing the fifth Spanish Treasure Ship

Destroying the second fort along the water's edge.

Quickly amassing a large army on the southern strip of land.

Rolling over the remnants of the Spanish base.

Spanish Treasure Fleet - Mission 7

With Lizzie's help garnered, the Knights of St. John set sail to Florida in the hopes of catching up with Delgado and he Spanish army. To cut the Spanish off at the knees, the plan is to steal their fleet of Treasure Ships, paying Lizzie back for her services at the same time.

Primary Objective: Capture the Spanish Treasure Ships (1/6)

Although not fully clarified yet, the objectives of this mission will be to capture 6 total Treasure Ships to ultimately defeat the Spanish . As the mission starts some Spanish ships will attack your small fleet. You can try to take them out but its best to move away so you do not lose your ships or the units they hold. The Paris Burning and ship holding your artillery in particular will be crucial to this mission. Make sure at least your Mortar artillery survives the first 5 ship captures as it is an essential part of the strategy covered here.

You should be able to already see the first Treasure Ship along with it's nearby prison. Drop your forces off on the beach near here and attack the prison first, releasing its captives and adding to your forces before taking out the Outpost that controls the Treasure Ship. Once you have captured it, it is yours permanently and the Spanish can neither recapture or destroy it.

With the constant influx of gold from this and other Treasure ships we can ignore the orders of building a Town Center for the majority of this mission, keeping the Covered Wagon safe on the ships or elsewhere out of harms way. You can use the Paris Burning to train Buccaneers to replenish your forces and since they cost only gold, you can build them indefinitely. Finally the real reason we want to hold off on the Town Center is it's construction early on triggers heavier attacks from the Spanish which will draw this level out.

Treasure Ship 2/6

Move northeast and you will find a Treasure to capture which grants you a Native American scout, whose fast speeds can be used to explore the area ahead of you. Keep him on a separate hotkey along with your Artillery on their own hotkey to facilitate easier moving of units that travel at different speeds.

Head up the path, going northwest now and you will quickly run into a group of native prisoners, whom upon releasing will grant you the locations and permanent visibility of 6 more Treasure ships on the map (there are 8 total with 6 needed to be captured) the closest of which is to the west, defending by a single Outpost which will be the next target. You can avoid damaging your units at all by having your Mortar out-range the outpost.

Next up its time to take out the first of two forts in this mission and capture our third Treasure Ship. Moving your army along, keep them out of range of the fortress' guns while you're Mortar hits it from long range. This is the only real strategy that works against the fort without having a base to build more units with, so like mentioned before, you need the Mortar for this. Some Spanish are likely to attack your artillery during this process but you should be able to fend them off with ease if you grouped your units around the cannon. Once the fort falls, ship #3 is yours and adding to your supply.

Treasure Ship 4/6 & 5/6

Treasure Ship #4 and #5 are a pretty simple task, just north of the fort is another one of the Ships (#4) exposed on your map by the natives you rescued earlier and guarded by a single Outpost in exposed territory, ripe for the taking. Just send your forces there and overrun any defenders you encounter, remembering to build some more Buccaneers with your limitless supply of gold.

When the fourth one is yours, move your forces further north and to the right a little bit to find the fifth Treasure ship, also guarded by a single Outpost in relatively exposed territory again, but previously undiscovered by the natives you had rescued. There are also some prisoners up here you can rescue while destroying some Spanish production buildings.

Destroy Spanish Fort #2

With five Treasure Ships, the gold income should be pretty ridiculous by now. At this point you can accomplish one more task easily without constructing your base just yet. Move a boat of yours along the water going southwest until you find a bend which you should be able to see the Fort that sits atop it or alternatively, send your scout you rescued earlier to approach the southern corner of the mainland until it runs into the Fort itself.

Once you have a visual of it, you can approach with your army, artillery in tow, and once again out-range the Fort by letting your Mortar pick away at its structure from a distance. Again you should make sure to have your army between the Fort and your Mortar, but outside of the Fort's gun range to prevent unnecessary casualties.

The Final Treasure Ship, Building a Town Center and Killing Delgado (1,000 XP)

Now with five treasure ships, the Spanish's resources cut down and their Forts destroyed you can now build your settlement. The best place to do this is at the tiny strip of land at the very south of the map, where you can quickly get a base up and running with little interference unlike on the mainland. Don't focus so much on sending settlers, opting for military reinforcements instead since the base will only have limited use to get the army up and running.

Use the ludicrous gold income you have and the home shipments you should have built up by now to quickly spur massive growth in your base. It should take about 7-8 minutes tops with the gold income you have to get a max population army ready, chock full of artillery. Buying and selling the resources you need on the Market will facilitate this process.

Once you have maxed your population, split your army into control groups with the max amount of units in each group and send them all at once, taking the thin high-ground land path to the Spanish base along the western side of the map.

As long as you avoid exposing your ground units to the Spanish Navy that sits in the body of water by their base you can really plow over everything and anything, remembering to leave the Outpost guarding any of the final Treasure ships for after you have destroyed the majority of the Spanish base and Delgado for the experience. Mortars can fire from the land to take out Naval ships giving you a hard time or alternatively, you can bring your ships in while the Spanish Navy is distracted with your ground units for s sneaky surprise attack. Capturing the sixth Treasure ship by destroying any of the remaining Outposts that guard them will complete this mission in victory.

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Capturing the Fixed Gun.

Using the Fixed Gun to destroy the Circle base.

Building a dock to repair ships defending the beaches to each side of the Fixed Gun.

Plowing the Circle base.

Establishing production facilities where the Circle base once stood.

Destroying the Fountain of Youth.

The Fountain of Youth - Mission 8

In the final mission of Act I of the Age of Empires 3 campaign, the Knights of St. John along with Morgan discover they have been lead astray by Alain who plans to use the power of the well for his own benefit along with the help of the Circle of Ossus, a secret society at odds with the Knights. It is up to you to destroy the Fountain of Youth in order to prevent it falling into the wrong hands.

Primary Objective: Capture the Fixed GunYour first task upon starting the level is to quickly head northeast along the landmass you landed on to capture the Fixed Gun, an incredibly powerful cannon that will make all the difference in this level. You will have to rush it and destroy the defenders quickly as it deals heavy damage taking out groups of units at a time.

Once its yours you will be awarded a Covered Wagon with which to start your settlement on this landmass. Leave your Fire Ships alone for the time being, using them in a pinch to stop attacking ships rather than using them against the fountain yet. You will get more free Fire Ships along the course of this mission so hold off on building any. Also, avoid firing on the fountain for now, the reason why will be explained towards the end of this guide.

Secondary Objective: Destroy the Circle's base east of the Fixed GunThis point enters the drawn out, build up and defend yourself stage of the game. While you get your Town Center built close to where it landed by the silver mine where it is dropped off. This task is probably the longest of the game considering its during this time you are fending off heavy attacks from both the red and orange bases while trying to up your economy and build up defenses.

As you grow your army, always keep a substantial amount of defenders near the Fixed Gun as the enemy seems to be able to capture it by getting close to it even when you have units nearby, which can be troublesome. They will try to do this fairly often as long as it's under your control. Build some Docks to either side of the Fixed Gun and build some Galleons to defend the beaches and help with advancing enemies.

When you have enough forces, you can split your army, leaving some defenders while the rest travel under cover of the Fixed Gun to clear out the rest of the Circle base. As you do this, bring some Settlers to establish structures along this area, building Outposts near the upper section to provide static defenses for the structures and gatherers that will be working there.

Secondary Objective: Build a Trading Post at the Native Village (300 XP)In the video below this secondary objective is skipped due to the ability for it to add a long amount of extra time to this mission's progress given the necessity to split our defenders in doing so. However if you wish to accomplish this task, send a boat with a small army to the western land mass to capture the area and construct the Trading Post.

Primary Objective: Destroy the Fountain of YouthNow with most of the distractions out of the way, it is time to conquer the final objective in this mission, the destruction of the Fountain of Youth. The best way to accomplish this is to start building at least 4 Mortar and calling in Falconets with your Home City cards if you haven't already. Preferably you will have left the fountain alone till now, since destroying it slowly can trigger an attack that reaches your shores, doing massive damage before you can fully demolish the fountain.

Once you have your artillery squad ready, load them on a ship and use your Fixed Gun to clear out the small island just east of the fountain if you haven't already. Once the Outpost and handful of defenders are gone you can drop off your artillery here and begin to fire upon the fountain with your Mortar.

Be prepared at this point for a small counterattack, as doing this triggers a single red ship to drop off 6 cavalry on that island to stop your artillery. With your ship still close by, quickly load up your artillery on to your Galleon and kill of the cavalry that should be now sitting around dumbfounded on the tiny island, following up with the destruction of the nearby enemy ship with either the Fixed Gun or your Galleons.

Once this counterattack is beaten off, drop your artillery back off on the island who should now be able to resume their bombardment unhindered. At the same time, take all your Galleons, Fire Ships and the Fixed Gun and order them to attack the fountain together. The combine fire of all these units should reduce it to rubble under a minute flat, possibly quicker.

When the fountain gets below about 25% health, a massive attack wave is triggered with Alain leading the biggest surge of Circle units yet, however with this combined fire strategy (versus whittling away at the fountain with the Fixed Gun over a long period of time) you will drop the fountain long before the enemy wave gets anywhere near your shores. The instant the fountain falls apart and crumbles into the water, this mission and Act One "Blood" of Age of Empires 3 is completed with a resounding victory.

Comments

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Denise Handlon 6 years agofrom North Carolina

Wow! This looks very thorough, complete with videos. Good luck in the fan fave competition.

Simone Haruko Smith 6 years agofrom San Francisco

Oh my gosh... this looks like so much fun. Another great guide, SOE. Voted up, useful, and awesome!

Robin Edmondson 6 years agofrom San Francisco

Your gaming guides are so incredibly impressive. I'm always astounded at your level of knowledge in this area and how well you show your information, i.e., screenshots and video. Very impressive and I'm sure incredibly useful to someone wanting to know the ins and outs of the games! Huge kudos!